Champion of Champion Fours – report by Lindsay Knight

  • July 24, 2023

Birkenhead, representing the Bowls North Harbour centre, missed out in the national champion of champion fours tournaments, which were held in the Auckland region at the weekend.

However, the men’s team of Daymon Pierson, Steven Yates, Jack Huriwai and Jimmy Heath did qualify for Sunday’s post-section play, where in the quarter-finals they were beaten by a strong Canterbury line-up from the Elmwood Park club.  Skipped by the legendary Gary Lawson, and with another multiple national champion and Black Jack Kelvin Scott at two, Elmwood Park beat Birkenhead 13-8.

Elmwood then went onto the final, but was beaten there 15-10 by a team from Manurewa Cosmopolitan in the Counties centre, which was skipped by a former national pairs champion, David Clark.

The Birkenhead women’s team of Millie Nathan, Lauranne Croot, Bev Rolfe and Connie Mathieson, won two matches in the qualifying rounds but missed post-section play with a loss in the final round to New Plymouth’s Paritutu.

Teams from northern centres contested the women’s final, with Northland’s Kensington beating Auckland’s Balmoral 21-16.